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Updates: 

Fabien Antoine gave me a reference that shows that the reorganization under the new constitution has been passed into law.

The Democratic Republic of Congo promulgated its new constitution on 2006-02-18. Article 2 specified that the country would be subdivided into Kinshasa city and 25 provinces. Kinshasa has equal status to a province. The new provinces' boundaries are based on those of the provinces and districts in effect at the end of the colonial era.

The constitution allowed 36 months for the new provinces to be organized. That didn't happen. Instead, a law was passed on 2011-01-20 whose effect is to give the legislature the authority to set up the new provinces. The current plan is to phase them in. The new provinces are listed below. Populations are from sources [1] and [2], but with some corrections to discrepancies in those sources. The result is still very likely an overestimate. It implies, among other things, that the population of Katanga has grown by a factor of 2.58 since the 1998 estimate shown below.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter Number I-2 was published on 2002-05-21. It shows the name and code for a province changed from Haut-Congo (HC) to Orientale (OR), and the status of the regions changed to provinces.

Country overview: 

Short name	DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
ISO code	CD
FIPS code	CG
Languages	French (fr), Lingala (ln), Kiswahili (sw), Tshiluba, Kikongo
Time zone	(see table)
Capital	Kinshasa

 

At the start of the 20th century, the État Indépendant du Congo (Congo Free State) was the personal domain of King Léopold II of Belgium. In 1908, Leopold ceded it to Belgium. As a Belgian colony, it was called Belgian Congo. It became independent on 1960-06-30 and took the name République du Congo. A month and a half later, the French colony on the other side of the Congo River, Moyen Congo, gained its independence and likewise took the name République du Congo. Most people distinguished the two countries by calling them Congo-Léopoldville and Congo-Brazzaville, according to their capitals. In 1964, the former Belgian colony changed its official name to République democratique du Congo. On 1971-10-27 it was renamed to Zaire (or Zaïre). On 1997-05-19, it changed back to République democratique du Congo.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Den Demokratiske Republik Congo, Zaire (obsolete)
2. Dutch: Congo-Kinshasa, Democratische Republiek Congo, Belgisch Congo (obsolete)
3. English: Congo-Kinshasa (informal), Belgian Congo (obsolete), Congo Free State (obsolete), Congo-Léopoldville (obsolete), Kongo Free State (obsolete), Zaire (obsolete)
4. Finnish: Kinshasan Kongo, Kongon demokraattinen tasavalta, Zaire (obsolete)
5. French: République f démocratique du Congo m, Congo Belge (obsolete), Zaïre m (obsolete)
6. German: Demokratische Republik f Kongo m, Zaire n (obsolete)
7. Icelandic: Kongó alþýðulýðveldi, Zaír (obsolete)
8. Italian: Repubblica f Democratica del Congo m, Zaire m (obsolete)
9. Norwegian: Kongo-Kinshasa, Den demokratiske republikken Kongo (formal), Zaïre (obsolete)
10. Portuguese: República f Democrática do Congo m, Congo m Belga (obsolete), Zaire m (obsolete)
11. Russian: ДРК (abbr), Демократическая Республика Конго (formal), Заир (obsolete), Конго (Киншаса)
12. Spanish: República f Democrática del Congo m, Congo Belga (obsolete), Zaire m (obsolete)
13. Swedish: Kongo (Kinshasa)
14. Turkish: Kongo Demokratik Cumhuriyeti, Kongo Kinşasa (informal), Zaire Cumhuriyeti (obsolete)

Origin of name: 

from the Congo river, which came from the ethnic name Kikongo

Primary subdivisions: 

Democratic Republic of Congo is divided into twenty-five provinces and one ville neutre (neutral city), Kinshasa.

New Province	HASC	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital	Old Province	Ph
Bas-Uélé	CD.BU	1,093,845	148,331	57,271	Buta	Orientale	2
Équateur	CD.ET	1,626,606	103,902	40,117	Mbandaka	Équateur	3
Haut-Katanga	CD.HK	3,960,945	132,425	51,130	Lubumbashi	Katanga	3
Haut-Lomami	CD.HL	2,540,127	108,204	41,778	Kamina	Katanga	2
Haut-Uélé	CD.HU	1,920,867	89,683	34,627	Isiro	Orientale	2
Ituri	CD.IT	4,241,236	65,658	25,351	Bunia	Orientale	2
Kasaï	CD.KS	3,199,891	95,631	36,923	Luebo	Kasaï-Occidental	2
Kasaï-Central	CD.LL	2,976,806	59,111	22,823	Kananga	Kasaï-Occidental	3
Kasaï Oriental	CD.KO	2,702,430	9,481	3,661	Mbuji-Mayi	Kasaï-Oriental	3
Kinshasa	CD.KN	8,951,248	9,965	3,848	Kinshasa	Kinshasa City	1
Kongo Central	CD.BC	3,734,594	53,929	20,822	Matadi	Bas-Congo	1
Kwango	CD.KG	1,994,036	89,974	34,739	Kenge	Bandundu	2
Kwilu	CD.KU	2,144,415	78,219	30,201	Kikwit	Bandundu	3
Lomami	CD.LM	2,048,839	56,010	21,626	Kabinda	Kasaï-Oriental	2
Lualaba	CD.LB	1,677,288	121,308	46,837	Kolwezi	Katanga	2
Mai-Ndombe	CD.MA	1,768,327	127,465	49,215	Inongo	Bandundu	2
Maniema	CD.MN	1,908,770	132,520	51,166	Kindu	Maniema	1
Mongala	CD.MO	1,793,564	58,141	22,448	Lisala	Équateur	2
Nord-Kivu	CD.NK	7,460,642	59,483	22,967	Goma	Nord-Kivu	1
Nord-Ubangi	CD.NU	1,482,076	56,644	21,870	Gbadolite	Équateur	2
Sankuru	CD.SN	1,374,239	105,000	40,541	Lusambo	Kasaï-Oriental	2
Sud-Kivu	CD.SK	5,050,348	65,070	25,124	Bukavu	Sud-Kivu	1
Sud-Ubangi	CD.SU	2,744,345	51,648	19,941	Gemena	Équateur	2
Tanganyika	CD.TG	2,482,009	134,940	52,101	Kalemie	Katanga	2
Tshopo	CD.TO	2,614,630	199,567	77,053	Kisangani	Orientale	3
Tshuapa	CD.TP	1,316,855	132,940	51,328	Boende	Équateur	2
Total		74,808,978	2,345,249	905,506
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. Population: Rough estimates 2005-12. Area: Rough estimates (source [1]). Ph: Planned phase (source [7]; see note).

 

Note: Phase 1 is provinces that are not changing from the previous arrangement. Phase 2 is new provinces corresponding to former districts, some of which had functioned as provinces in the past. Phase 3 is newly created provinces whose capitals were capitals of the former provinces.

Further subdivisions:

See the Administrative Zones of the Democratic Republic of Congo page.

The regions are divided into 41 sous-régions (sub-regions), which are further divided into 216 zones administratives (administrative zones), which are in turn subdivided into collectivités.

A 1930 text says that the Belgian Congo was divided into five provinces (naming Ruanda-Urundi as one of them), subdivided into 21 districts, and then into 179 territoires (territories).

Territorial extent: 

Sud-Kivu includes Île Idjwi, an island in Lake Kivu.

The UN LOCODE page  for Congo (Kinshasa) lists locations in the country, some of them with their latitudes and longitudes, some with their ISO 3166-2 codes for their subdivisions. This information can be put together to approximate the territorial extent of subdivisions.

Origins of names: 

1. Bas-Congo: French for lower Congo. Region lies along the lower reaches of the Congo River.
2. Haut-Congo: French for upper Congo
3. Kinshasa: named after a nearby pre-colonial village, Kikongo for salt market
4. Kivu: for Lake Kivu, whose name is Rwandese for large body of water
5. Shaba: Swahili for copper, which is mined there
6. Zaïre: From a native word n'zai: river, a traditional name for the Congo River. It was the river's official name, and the country's, from 1971 to 1997.

Change history: 

1. 1885-02-26: General Act of the Berlin Conference created the Congo Free State as personal property of King Léopold II of Belgium. Initially it contained four districts. More were created over the years.
2. 1908-10-18: Under the Colonial Charter, Congo became a Belgian colony, under the name of Belgian Congo (French: Congo Belge, Flemish: Belgisch Congo).
3. 1910-09-01: Katanga merged with Belgian Congo, and was divided into four districts.
4. 1912: Number of districts had reached 22. According to source [3], they were:

District	Vg	Capital
Aruwimi	O	Basoko
Bangala		Lisala
Bas-Congo		Boma
Bas-Uele	O	Buta
Equateur		Coquilhatville
Haut-Luapula	K	Kambove
Haut-Uele	O	Bambili
Ituri	O	(none)
Kasai		Luebo
Kivu	O	(none)
Kwango		Bandundu
Lac Leopold II		Inongo
Lomami	K	Kabinda
Lowa	O	(none)
Lulonga		Basankusu
Lulua	K	Kafakumbu
Maniema	O	(none)
Moyen Congo		Leopoldville
Sankuru		Lusambo
Stanleyville	O	Stanleyville
Tanganika-Moero	K	Kongolo
Ubangi		Libenge
Vg: There were two vice-governments: Katanga (K, capital Elisabethville), and Province Orientale (O, capital Stanleyville).

1. Note: Lac Leopold II is now known as Lac Mai-Ndombe.
2. 1926-03-01: Ruanda-Urundi became united administratively with Belgian Congo, although it remained autonomous. (The date is the effective date of the law of 1925-08-21.)
3. 1929: National capital moved from Boma to Léopoldville.
4. 1933-10-01: Belgian Congo reorganized from four provinces (Congo Kasai, Équateur, Katanga, and Orientale) into six provinces as shown in the following table:

Province	Population	Area(km.²)	Post-1947	Post-1997
Coquilhatville	1,557,972	403,290	Équateur/Evenaar	Équateur
Costermansville	1,302,432	230,209	Kivu	Maniema, Nord-Kivu, Sud-Kivu
Élisabethville	1,023,060	496,962	Katanga	Katanga
Léopoldville	1,997,796	362,953	Léopoldville	Bas-Zaïre, Bandundu, Kinshasa
Lusambo	1,953,931	321,534	Kasai	Kasai-Occidental, Kasai-Oriental
Stanleyville	2,382,217	528,925	Orientale/Oost	Haut-Zaïre
6 provinces	10,217,408	2,343,873
Province: for Flemish names, replace "ville" with "stad". Capitals have the same names as their provinces. Population: 1938 census. Post-1947: Province names were changed in 1947 to these names (French/Flemish are shown, where the two names differ). Post-1997: Provinces correspond closely in extent to these modern provinces.

1. 1952: Name of capital of Kivu province changed from Costermansville to Bukavu.
2. ~1957: Capital of Kasai province moved from Lusambo to Luluabourg.
3. 1960: After independence there were changes of all sorts. New provinces were created repeatedly. Informally, they were called provincettes. By 1963-06-25, when Katanga-Oriental was formed, the list was as shown here.

Province	Capital	Modern equivalent
Congo-Central	Matadi	Bas-Congo
Cuvette-Centrale	Coquilhatville	Équateur
Haut-Congo	Stanleyville	Haut-Congo
Katanga-Oriental	Élisabethville	Katanga
Kibali-Ituri	Bunia	Haut-Congo
Kivu-Central	Bukavu	Sud-Kivu
Kwango	Kenge	Bandundu
Kwilu	Kikwit	Bandundu
Léopoldville	Léopoldville	Kinshasa
Lomami	Kabinda	Kasai-Oriental
Lualaba	Kolwezi	Katanga
Luluabourg	Luluabourg	Kasai-Occidental
Mai-Ndombe	Inongo	Bandundu
Maniema	Kindu-Port Empain	Maniema
Moyen-Congo	Lisala	Équateur
Nord-Katanga	Albertville	Katanga
Nord-Kivu	Luofu	Nord-Kivu
Sankuru	Lodja	Kasai-Occidental, Kasai-Oriental
Sud-Kasai	Bakwanga	Kasai-Oriental
Ubangi	Gemena	Équateur
Uele	Paulis	Haut-Congo
Unité-Kasaïenne	Tshikapa	Kasai-Occidental

1. 1966-07-01: Country reorganized into Bandundu, Bas-Zaïre, Équateur, Haut-Zaïre, Kasai-Occidental, Kasai-Oriental, Kinshasa, Kivu, and Shaba regions. National capital renamed from Léopoldville to Kinshasa; Stanleyville renamed to Kisangani; Élisabethville renamed to Lubumbashi; Coquilhatville renamed to Mbandaka; Banningville renamed to Bandundu; Bakwanga renamed to Mbuji-Mayi; Luluabourg renamed to Kananga; Costermansville renamed to Bukavu.
2. 1972: Katanga region renamed to Shaba.
3. ~1975: Kongo-Central region renamed to Bas-Zaïre.
4. ~1980: An area of 7,949 sq. km. transferred from Bas-Zaïre region to Kinshasa.
5. 1997-05-17: The victorious Laurent-Désiré Kabila established the Democratic Republic of Congo.
6. 1997-05-19: Name of Bas-Zaïre changed to Bas-Congo, Haut-Zaïre to Haut-Congo, and Shaba to Katanga.
7. ~1998: Name of Haut-Congo (ISO code CD-HC) changed to Orientale.
8. 1997-10-08: Status of regions changed to provinces by statutory order. Kivu region (ISO code KV, FIPS code CG07, capital Bukavu) split into Maniema, Nord-Kivu, and Sud-Kivu. Thereupon, the Congo was divided into ten provinces and one neutral city.

Province	HASC	ISO	FIPS	UPU	Tz	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital	Former name
Bandundu	CD.BN	BN	CG01	BN	+1	5,201,000	295,658	114,154	Bandundu	Banningville
Bas-Congo	CD.BC	BC	CG08	BZ	+1	2,835,000	53,920	20,819	Matadi
Équateur	CD.EQ	EQ	CG02	EQ	+1	4,820,000	403,292	155,712	Mbandaka	Coquilhatville
Kasaï-Occidental	CD.KC	KW	CG03	KW	+2	3,337,000	154,742	59,746	Kananga	Luluabourg
Kasaï-Oriental	CD.KR	KE	CG04	KE	+2	3,830,000	170,302	65,754	Mbuji-Mayi	Bakwanga
Katanga	CD.KT	KA	CG05	SH	+2	4,125,000	496,877	191,845	Lubumbashi	Élisabethville
Kinshasa City	CD.KN	KN	CG06	FIH	+1	4,787,000	9,965	3,848	Kinshasa	Léopoldville
Maniema	CD.MN	MA	CG10	MM	+2	1,246,787	132,250	51,062	Kindu
Nord-Kivu	CD.NK	NK	CG11	NK	+2	3,564,434	59,483	22,967	Goma
Orientale	CD.HC	OR	CG09	HZ	+2	5,566,000	503,239	194,302	Kisangani	Stanleyville
Sud-Kivu	CD.SK	SK	CG12	SK	+2	2,837,779	65,070	25,124	Bukavu	Costermansville
11 divisions						42,150,000	2,344,798	905,333
Province: Kinshasa is not a province, but a ville neutre (neutral city). ISO: Codes from ISO standard 3166-2, issued December 15, 1998. For full identification in a global context, prefix "CD-" to the code (ex: CD-MA represents Maniema). FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4, including changes published in Change Notice 2, dated 1999-03-01. UPU: "Postal addressing systems" is a document available online from the Universal Postal Union. Its entry for Zaire has a list of provinces and codes. The province names are those that were in effect about 1992-1997. My inference is that these codes were the official postal abbreviations for the provinces. Tz: Time zone (offset from GMT). Population: 1998 estimate. Former name: Colonial name of capital.

1. 1999-07: Brigadier General James Kazini created a new province called Kibale-Ituri in taking part of the territory of Orientale. This province was not accepted as legitimate by the central government. News reports as early as 2003 spoke of events in Ituri province, and of Bunia as its capital. In 2015, under the new constitution, the same area became Ituri province.
2. 2015-01-09: The National Assembly passed a law implementing the reorganization into 25 provinces and one neutral city. The four divisions that are unchanged from the previous division are immediately effective; the changed ones will probably become active by phases. Some of the capitals are in dispute. The capital of Sankuru might end up at Lodja. In earlier plans, the name of Kasaï-Central was going to be Lulua.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Bas-Congo: Bas-Zaïre, Kongo-Central (obsolete); Lower Zaire (English-obsolete)
2. Équateur: Equator, Equatorial (English)
3. Kasai: Kassai (variant)
4. Kasai-Occidental: Kasai West, West Kasai (English)
5. Kasai-Oriental: East Kasai, Kasai East (English)
6. Katanga: Shaba (obsolete)
7. Kinshasa: Léopoldville (obsolete)
8. Kivu: Kivou (variant)
9. Orientale: Haut-Congo, Haut-Zaïre (obsolete); Upper Zaire (English-obsolete)

Sources: 

1. [1] Nouvelles entités provinciales , by Joseph M. Kyalangilwa, a Congolese living in Switzerland. The document has a few typos. I found it necessary to adjust four of the area figures in order to reconcile the total areas with those of the former provinces. (Retrieved 2009-02-27.)
2. [2] Press releases from the Union de Congolais pour la Défense de la Patrie et du Peuple (UCDP), also by Joseph M. Kyalangilwa. Populations are based on the assumption that registered (potential) voters as of 2005-12 represent exactly 33% of the population in each province. (http://www.ucdp-info.com/presses_secu_al.htm, dead link, retrieved 2008-10-04.)
3. [3] Cours Complet de Geographie : Le Congo Belge , by Roland and E. Duchesne, Namur, 1914 (retrieved 2003-06-07).
4. [4] The Rulers Web site has histories of the provinces on its Provinces 1960-66  page. I have yet to validate them against my other sources. (Retrieved 2003-06-07.)
5. [5] A flags site also lists historical changes (http://www.vdiest.nl/Africa/zaire.htm, dead link, retrieved 2003-11-27).
6. [6] Library of Congress country study  (retrieved 1999).
7. [7] Interior Minister's presentation to the Senate  (in French, retrieved 2013-03-26).
8. [8] "RDC: le découpage territorial voté à l'Assemblée " (in French, retrieved 2015-02-27).